6 Tips for Getting More Out of Your Garden This Summer

There’s no finer time than the summer to have a well-looked after garden. Winter can be beautiful, spring brings hard work, but in the summer, you can kick back, relax, and enjoy yourself. During the summer, the garden can quickly become the most important part of your home, and that means you want it to be as perfect as possible. To get that perfection, you’re going to have to pay attention to the details. You might not have green fingers, and the thought of growing your own food might be a big no-no, but if you want to get more out of your garden this summer, here are some tips that you might not have thought about.

Growing Vegetables

This isn’t something that everyone is going to enjoy (or even want!), but if you want a little more substance in your garden than pretty little flowers, then growing veg could be the answer. If you’ve never grown anything for your table before, you don’t have to panic. It can be a lot easier to grow vegetables at home than you might think, and as long as you do your online research about the best times to plant specific veggies, your fingers might just get a little greener. Have a think about your favorite vegetables, and look at your garden for an empty space that could be helping to cut your shopping costs. When it comes to growing vegetables, the hardest part is always going to be getting the soil right. Get yourself some compost and those veggies could be on your plate throughout the whole of summer.

Sheds, Cabins, and Summerhouses

If you’ve got a big garden with lots of empty space, you have a lot of options that could actually add value to your property. A shed is a useful accessory for gardens because they give you additional storage space that might free up your increasingly full garage. However, cabins and summerhouses can be a lot more valuable when it comes to getting the maximum value from your garden. It’s never been easier to buy the basic materials for a building that can be used throughout the summer for relaxing, and there are plenty of YouTube guides and articles available for making your build as straightforward as possible. When the day comes that you want to sell your home, that summer house or cabin could add significant value to your home, making the costs more than worthwhile. Of course, if you’re not selling, then you get to enjoy spending time in your garden while in the most comfortable and elegant surroundings.

Smart Planting

The last thing that you want to do over the summer is to spend more time working in your garden than relaxing in it. It’s much easier to make that happen than you might think. Your first step is to only grow those plants that are considered low-maintenance. The ‘tough-love gardener’ approach can be very useful, which is where you only have those plants in your garden that can look after themselves. You will have to spend some time getting them set up and established, but once in place, you should generally be able to ignore them. Lavender is one option to consider, and it’s also a practical option because lavender is great for helping people with insomnia. Penstemon and ornamental grasses should also be options that you take the time to learn a bit more about.

The Challenge of Watering

Making sure that your garden is well hydrated is vital, especially if you live in one of the warmer states. If there’s one aspect of gardening that you don’t want to overlook, it’s the watering! Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to make sure that your plants, vegetables, and your lawn are all getting the amount of water that they need, but you will need to tailor your solution to your location. When you invest in a quality sprinkler system installation in Houston, Texas, this will tend to be a very different solution to options that yard=owners have in colder areas like Maine. Talk to some gardening experts to find out exactly what kind of water solutions are best for your climate and for the specific vegetation that you have. Get your watering right, and you’ll be blessed throughout the summer with greener, healthier grass, and more delightful plants.

The Manicured Lawn

There are two schools of thought when it comes to the modern lawn. For many homeowners, the manicured lawn is a status symbol, but they have slowly grown out of fashion in recent years. That’s simply because more people than ever are trying to reduce their environmental impact, and the gas mowers and synthetic fertilizers used to look after lawns are not going to be very eco-friendly. Now, you don’t have to let your lawn grow into a mad jungle. Ideally, you should keep fertilization to a minimum, and you should always try to avoid gas-powered garden tools if possible. Lawnmowers, weed whackers, and edgers can all be purchased as either battery-powered or as plug-ins, so look at those options instead of those gas guzzlers.

Garden as Animal Sanctuary

While you rarely want to get a visit from a coyote or a bear while you’re working on your tan, there’s nothing quite like the joy of having wild animals in your garden. This will very much depend on where you live, but even something basic like a bird feeder can provide hours of entertainment. Insects, frogs, and birds won’t just make a nice surprise when you’re relaxing in your garden over the summer, but they’ll help to keep that garden healthier too. Do some research on the best ways to attract the right animals to your garden, and you’ll start to get a lot more excitement and fun from it.

Not everyone has the luxury of a garden, but for those that do, getting the most from it should be a priority. Spend time doing your research and be ready to put the work in so that you know the specific needs of your property and your region. Get it right, and you could be spending summer in a much more pleasant and relaxing way.